Abraham Lincoln crossed over it occasionally on trips from Illinois to Washington, D.C., and,
until yesterday, you could have followed in his footsteps.

But as of today, the last S-bridge still in service in Ohio is closed to traffic by the Guernsey
County commissioners. The bridge, which crosses over Salt Fork Creek near Middlebourne about 10
miles east of Cambridge, probably was built about 1828, said Doug Smith, a Licking County
commissioner and president of the Ohio National Road Association.

“That bridge has seen everything from foot traffic to Conestoga wagons to Model-Ts to modern-day
vehicles,” Smith said.

What it wasn’t designed for, however, are the heavy trucks and machinery now traversing Guernsey
County’s roads because of the area’s natural-gas-drilling boom.

And even though the bridge’s legal load limit is posted at 3 tons, “a lot of these oil and gas
vehicles that travel along here don’t pay a lot of attention to load limits,” said Guernsey County
Commissioner Skip Gardner.

With those concerns, and historic preservation in mind, Smith and three other members of the
Ohio National Road Association asked the Guernsey County commissioners on Wednesday to close the
bridge.

“We didn’t hesitate,” Gardner said. A resolution was passed within minutes, and the guardrails
went up yesterday.

S-bridges were a unique part of the National Road, a 700-plus-mile trail carved through the
wilderness to be America’s primary artery westward. Authorized by Thomas Jefferson, the road has
moved people and commerce from Maryland across six states to the Mississippi River since
construction began in 1811.

S-bridges were the ingenious solution to an engineering problem, Smith said. Crossing streams
and rivers back then was easier at a 90-degree angle, but the road, of course, did not always meet
water perpendicularly. An S-curve help alleviate the skewed angle.

The S-bridge at Middlebourne is designated as both a National Historic Landmark and a National
Engineering Landmark.

It’s still too early to predict its future, but two groups hope to turn it into a park. Gardner
said the Guernsey County Community Development Corp. has expressed interest in acquiring the bridge
and using Clean Ohio funds to help meet that goal.

The nonprofit Ohio National Road Association is working with the Wills Township trustees to do
the same thing.

“Everyone wants to see it preserved, and the township is eager and ready take over the concept
of creating an interpretive park,” Smith said. “It’s a fading piece of American history. I want it
to be here long after I’m gone, and I want it to be able to tell its own story.”